Imagine
you’re a retailer. Picture the area in your store that you’ve set aside for the
most important part of your customers’ visit – the checkout area. It’s not
likely that your cash register is located in an awkward, hard to find spot.
It’s even less likely that you’d put it outside in a back alley where customers
would fear being robbed. And the employees staffing the register would probably
be your most knowledgeable, reliable staff so that any possible issues that
arose during the sale could be dealt with efficiently and quickly.

Unfortunately,
when it comes to the checkout area of many online stores, customers are left to
find their own way, worry about security, and figure it all out themselves. Or,
if any of that becomes too frustrating or annoying, they just leave.

According
to SeeWhy (www.seewhy.com), recent statistics show that
people abandon their online shopping carts up to 50% of the time. They also
show that only 17 percent of companies follow up on those abandoned carts, and
only 9% follow up within 24 hours. When you consider how much effort is
put into getting potential customers to your website and convincing them to buy
your products, it’s shocking that half of those who click to buy just “get away”
before closing the sale. So how can you help more visitors go from cart
abandoners to satisfied customers?

2) Make the process easy. The more pages a customer
has to go through in order to complete the purchase, the more opportunities
there are for them to walk away before they actually buy. Some online carts are
designed for ease of use, like the one-page Interspire Shopping Cart (http://www.interspire.com/shoppingcart/).

3) Make it easy to use different forms of payment –
credit cards, PayPal, Google Checkout, etc.

4) Show shipping charges and taxes in the tally as
customers are shopping, so they aren’t surprised at the end when they see the
grand total of what they’ve spent.

5) Don’t make it hard for returning customers to sign
in if they have forgotten their username or password. If they have to go off to
wait for an email, you might lose their attention and the sale.

6) Have an easy, instant way to get help. Whether it’s
a phone number or online chat, make sure that any last minute questions can be
answered on the spot.

7) Let shoppers save their shopping cart for later.
Maybe they want to compare prices, or maybe their boss just walked in to the
office. Make it easy to pick up where they left off

8) Follow up on abandoned carts. SeeWhy has a free
tool (and a paid one with more features) that lets you see which customers have
abandoned your cart so that you can get in touch with them.

Remember, getting potential customers to visit your
web site won’t put money in your pocket. If you want to turn people from tire
kickers into actual customers, you need to make sure you close the sale.

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Saying that Apple’s iPhone has revolutionized the cell phone market is an understatement. It has changed the basic cell phone options we expect, forced Apple’s competitors to be more innovative, and ushered in a resurgence of touch-screen smartphones.

While the BlackBerry has been the darling of corporate offices, mainly for email, the iPhone has pushed the entire smartphone industry to offer faster networks, more applications, and more advanced devices.

What does this mean for your business?

Many of your customers are going to demand that you not only have a well-designed Web site with a high level of customer self-service, but they are will expect that you can meet their data needs on mobile devices.

Right now you might enable customers to see the status of their orders via your Web site on their computer. Maybe they can even view their most recent invoices, chat with your customer service reps, and view how-to videos. But customers are demanding more interaction via their cell phones. They not only want to receive updates via text message alerts but also order last-minute items through the small screen of their smartphones (not the 21-inch screens of a flat-panel computer display).

You must plan for these demands from a tiny screen, tiny keyboard world.

And remember that your employees will want the same capabilities. Companies are facing a new generation of employees whose lifestyles are less computer-centric and more mobile aware. Requiring sales staff to lug around a laptop is expensive, and increasingly unwelcome. You will need to be prepared to have corporate standards that meet the lifestyles of today’s employees.

Whereas you probably have a group of in-house or outsourced staff for building custom software and Web applications, you will also need developers who can program applications for mobile devices. These programmers will need to build applications based on surveys of your customers and employees to determine if the programmers should focus on one or more mobile platform (Apple iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, Google Android, or Microsoft Windows Mobile).

As you consider servicing the needs of a mobile audience, don’t get caught in hype. For example, while the iPhone and T-Mobile’s Google-powered G-1 are news today, they might not be what customers are interested in tomorrow. Focus on serving your customer’s needs, not the hype of the latest headlines. For instance, you might be in an industry whose customers are still using fax machines. If so, don’t worry about having the latest BlackBerry-friendly ordering system, for now.

As your company grows, ensure that your IT gurus enable the data to be easily ported to Web sites, mobile devices, or wherever the data may need to go. The specifications of each project should enable easy data portability from one platform to another.

Computers will be the primary tool for business for years to come, but the use of mobile devices is increasing, and you must prepared.

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the positions of such sources on the issues addressed in this content.

In my last blog post, I wrote about the benefits of using a Business Process Management (BPM) application vs. prepackaged software to support different workflows in a small business.

While BPM tools have been around for quite some time, they have generally been developed with larger enterprise customers in mind. But there’s a new crop of solutions designed to meet the needs of small to medium sized companies.

Intalio BPM Business Edition comes with a selection of process templates to get you started on different departments and functions, including: finance, human resources, and product management. You can modify the templates to meet your own specific needs.

Intalio BPM is available as an SaaS web version and can also be deployed onsite for groups of 20 or more users. It integrates with MS Outlook, MS Exchange, Lotus Notes so workflow tasks can be managed directly from that tool instead of switching to the BPM tool.

Vacava RapidBiz- RapidBiz is designed to run on the IBM Smart Cube appliance. Its applications, called Sitlets, are extensions meant to “sit” alongside existing solutions. Pre-created Sitlets include customer contact management, order entry, help desk support, product quotes and product returns.

ProcessMaker is an open-source BPM software tool that can be deployed on your servers or hosted by them. It integrates with third-party systems including business intelligence (BI), document management, content management, and enterprise resource planning. While there is no fee to download the open source code, ProcessMaker does offer fee-based support, training, and hosting. Quotes are provided upon individual request.

All of these BPM tools are designed to be highly customizable and implemented with little or no IT support. However, as always, when choosing the solution that’s best for your particular company, I recommend that you first discuss options with your local IT consultant.

If you've ever started a new job and were handed a binder with flowcharts or a step-by-step description on how to do something, then you have already experienced a version of "business process management." Today, business process management (BPM) solutions are software applications that let companies create their own custom tools to support their specific business processes, rather than buying an existing software package and then having to customize it.

There are three key benefits to using a BPM product vs. buying a prepackaged software solution:

The tool you create is specifically designed to support your particular business process

There is a cost savings because no programming work is required to customize an off-the-shelf piece of software

No IT staff is required to use these BPM tools (although some do offer an enterprise version that can be integrated with other company IT systems if needed)

What kind of processes can be supported by BPM tools?

While the concept of BPM originally came from manufacturing based systems, it can be applied to any business process that involves different steps and should have a documented workflow. BPM allows visibility of the process so it can be monitored, but the bird's eye view also helps highlight ways that the process can be improved.

One example of a company using BPM tools is the airline company Finnair, which uses Intalio's BPM product to support its passenger upgrade process. Employees have the ability to analyze a situation and take proper action consistently which has resulted in greater customer satisfaction. Other examples of processes that are supported by BPM tools include: order entry, discharging patients from hospitals and completing loan applications.

What does the BPM tool actually do?

It allows you to standardize the Who, What, When and How of different processes within your business. With BPM software, you can:

Create a process flow mapping out the steps of the process (flowchart)

Create Gantt charts that show timing and duration of different steps and tasks in the process and responsibility for each step

Get a dashboard-style view of the entire process to monitor progress and performance

Traditionally, BPM solutions have been geared toward large, enterprise customers. However, there are several great BPM products suited for the small to medium sized business market. We'll take a look at those products next week in our post.

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Business telephone
systems with many phone lines, extensions and features can be a huge expense
for a small company, which explains the rising popularity of hosted PBX
solutions like RingCentral, VirtualPBX, OneBox, and OnSIP.
These VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) based solutions function similarly to
traditional PBX services offered by local phone companies. Employees can be
reached in one or multiple locations through the same main phone number.
Additionally, they can have multiple extensions, transfer calls internally and
other features just as if they were connected by a physical switch in their
office.

The flexibility and
cost savings make hosted IP PBX services an appealing option for small
businesses that need scalability, have remote employees or multiple locations,
or those just looking to keep expenses down. However, as with all technology
solutions, one size doesn’t fit all. Selecting the right virtual PBX depends on
your company’s particular needs. I recently talked with Rob Wolpov, President
of Junctions Networks (provider of OnSIP business VoIP). He suggested two key
points to consider when choosing a virtual PBX provider.

Is “Unlimited”
the best deal?

Although it may feel
like you spend the entire day on the phone, a typical employee actually spends
less than an hour per day on the phone unless they are help desk or call center
agents. While unlimited calling plans sound like a great deal, Mr. Wolpov
believes that most small businesses will benefit more with a per minute plan.
He suggests creating a spreadsheet to compare a flat rate plan against a “by-the-minute”
plan using your current phone charges for comparison purposes. Companies with
seasonal business - and therefore phone usage- could find themselves overpaying
during both quiet times and busy times if overage charges kick in once they
exceed the flat rate minute limit.

Consider buying
your own phones

Buying SIP phones
that work on any SIP-compatible system can also save you money over taking the
“free” phones offered with a service contract as the cost of the phones are
built into the contract price. SIP phones range in price from $75-150 per phone
and connect to the router with regular ethernet cable. You can avoid being
locked into a long term contract and can use the same phones if you decide to
switch providers. Remember: A little homework upfront on picking your next phone system can save you real money for months and years to come.

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As mobile networks become more powerful, people are relying more on their cell phones, Blackberries and iPhones for Internet access. Depending on your company’s products and services, you could be losing sales and customers if your website doesn’t work properly on a mobile device. Simply having a website is not enough. It must also display well and provide easy navigation on mobile devices

I recently talked to Lyn Nielsen at Desktop Solutions, a web development firm, about key elements to consider in making Web sites more user friendly on mobile devices.

Your competition. How does the competition look on various devices? This may be an opportunity for you to create a competitive edge!

How will mobile customers use your site? What are the most popular site features for users sitting on a train, eating in a restaurant or walking down the street? Do they need to see the News section or the About Us page? Will users look at photos of every product in your line? While it’s nice to have a complete version of your site visible on every cell phone imaginable, it might not be necessary.

Mobile visitors meet brick-and-mortar. Sometimes, the most valuable site feature on mobile devices is a store locator system. Creating a mobile version of the site with a cross section of products and a shortcut to the store locator is a logical choice for users. It’s also more cost-efficient than a full blown version of the main site.

Test your site. There are several Web sites that allow you to see how your site will look on various mobile devices, and give you ratings in several categories. Some sites will even identify specific problems and make suggestions to improve your results. Try one or both of the following: http://www.enom.com/instant-mobilizer/imobilizer.aspx# or http://ready.mobi

Focus on function over flash. Avoid using a lot of Flash and other animation programs as they will not render properly on most devices. Also note that sites coded with 'static' as opposed to data-driven html will need to be manually updated for mobile-friendly versions.

Consider registering a mobile version of your domain. DotMobi (.mobi) is a top level domain approved by ICANN mTLD global registry, dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices via the mobile web. It is financially backed and sponsored by Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Visa. The main advantage of .mobi sites is that they are theoretically guaranteed a site optimized for usage on the go. The main disadvantage of using dotMobi is that it promotes creating two separate device-dependent versions of the web, one desktop-based and the other mobile-based. Companies using .mobi have to register and take care of two domains/websites, instead of one whose pages would be adjusted to various devices via programming code.

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Occasionally, after a full day of barely looking up from the computer screen, I realize that the same technology that lets us connect more easily – like email – has also stifled a big part of the human element of communication. A simple phone call with another live person can be downright refreshing after reading and writing hundreds of messages.

But just as the finer subtleties of conversation can get lost in email, there are lots of nonverbal communication cues that can be lost over a phone call – especially when more than two people are participating in the conversation. Body language, gestures, and facial expressions are important elements of face-to-face communication. However, meeting in person is just not always possible or practical in today’s business world.

Videoconferencing can be useful to both large and small companies for many reasons– saving time and money by avoiding travel, making meetings more productive, and even reducing your carbon footprint. There are lots of providers to choose from, depending on your budget and the features you need.

For example, WebEx offers all the “basics” of videoconferencing and allows screen sharing of presentations or applications and up to 6 webcams at once. It supports both dial-in and VoIP for the voice component of the call.

·Other vendors like Tandberg offer a range of products, from their Movi PC-based solution for smaller businesses, to dedicated room-based video systems with HD video (like what you’d see in a large corporate location).

·Skype and Gmail video chat are free and don’t require anything more than a small software download and a webcam, and can be a great solution for internal communications where you don’t need the highest of video quality (where you might if you were doing a client presentation).

·Sightspeed and ooVoo offer business-friendly features like video call recording, video messaging, and have a higher quality video than some of the free services.

·And for the truly mobile professional, WebEx has recently begun supporting its service on 3G and 2G cell phones.

Keep in mind that just like in-person meetings, there are etiquette rules for videoconferencing as well – check out these suggestions from ooVoo.

If used properly, videoconferencing can be the next-best thing to being there.

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Your Web site is more than just a digital brochure. If you publish it and just wait for the calls or sales to roll in, you’re wasting a valuable opportunity to learn as much as you can about your site visitors (aka prospects).

Most (probably all) web hosting companies provide some sort of basic statistics about your site’s traffic. Beyond this basic level, there are powerful free tools like StatCounter and the popular Google Analytics which can tell you:

1) Where are they coming from?

Knowing what other sites referred visitors and what keywords were entered on the search engines to find you is key to building and refining your online marketing strategy. If you know where prospects are coming from geographically, you can get a much better picture of your market and where you might want to expand. All of this “source” information can even help you tie traffic back to your offline marketing efforts like advertising, or media mentions resulting from PR efforts.

2) When do they visit?

Tracking busy times of day or even the week can help you provide better service to your customers and prospects. For example, if lots of people visit after 9 at night, would it be worthwhile to have a toll-free phone number or a live chat agent staffed at those times? You should be available when your potential customers are “shopping” you, because those customers might not remember or bother to come back at 9 the next morning.

3) What are they looking at?

What pages get the most traffic? You might be surprised which products or services get viewed the most. Note which pages visitors enter the site through, and which ones they leave from. This information could help you decide to promote certain items or add more content. Beyond the what, when, and where, it would be really helpful to know.

4) Who are they and how can I reach them?

Having a call to action on your Web site, like signing up for a newsletter or downloading a white paper, are great ways to capture the contact information of Web site visitors. But what about those people who visit your Web site and then just leave? They may or may not ever come back.

Services like Demandbase and LeadCaster go beyond the free analytics tools by actually identifying the company that your site visitors are with. They can then cross-reference this information with your own contacts in different databases like LinkedIn, Jigsaw, and Salesforce.com, and tell you if you have any connections at that company. These tools can deliver warm leads to your sales force, almost instantly, complete with contact information.

By using a combination of these free and paid tools you can gather an incredible amount of detail about your Web site visitors, even those who might have gotten away.

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The days of emailing big boring decks of PowerPoint slides are over. (If they aren’t yet over for you, they should be.) To be fair, a lot of PowerPoint users just don’t execute it well – too much text, ugly, boring templates, not enough graphics. Most of the advanced multimedia capabilities get skipped altogether. Instead, try some of these excellent tools that can help you enhance (or replace) your old way of creating presentations and grab your audience’s attention.

Get interactive with your content - Faculte is a Web-based service that lets users create really sharp videos and multimedia presentations. You can brand the background, add a logo, and include webcam and prerecorded videos. But to pull it all together Faculte has a pen tool that turns the whole presentation into a white board, so you can write, draw, or otherwise call out important things.

Show instead of telling - Camtasia Studio from Techsmith can record anything you do on your computer screen and turn it into a HD-quality video for the web and mobile devices. Once you’re done recording, you can cut, splice, edit and rearrange your content, and even edit the video and audio separately. Transition effects, zoom and pan features and chapter options let you create a very professional-looking finished product.

Access and share from anywhere - GoView from Citrix online also offers advanced editing options in case you say “um” too many times during a recording segment. Presentations are hosted on GoView’s servers, so all you need to do to share with viewers is send them a link. No more emailing big attachments to prospects or to your sales team on the road.

Capture leads and track viewers - Another hosted service is Brainshark, which tracks your viewers and their activities through a combination of registration forms, polls, and interactive questions during the presentation. You can find out who viewed your presentation, how long they watched it, and other details that can be integrated with your CRM system.

Get social - Slideshare is a Web-based product with a social networking spin. Presentations can be shared either publicly or privately, and viewers can comment on individual slides. Uploaded presentations can be embedded on a blog or website or broadcast to your social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

The next time you have to present an idea, product, or concept, try wowing them with something beyond the same old slides.

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Earlier this year, American Airlines announced that their line of new Boeing 737-800's will be replacing their MD-80's. This is American Airlines first new airplanes since 2001.Why am I mentioning an airplane when writing about power supplies and battery? Well what is a first for American Airlines is that you'll no longer need power adapters since these new planes come with 110V AC power ports available to customers.

While news of 110 AC power outlets is good news, especially for very long hauls, those of you with newer computers know that the battery life on notebooks is getting better and better. My beloved computer of about 3 years had an "extended" battery pack, but it could not last much longer than one to two hours. My new computer's extended battery life is now over 4 hours. With battery power this long, the need to ensure one has a power outlet is less of a concern. It's quite interesting the "little" things we do when we don't have long battery life.

For example, I used to get on the train and scramble to find the nearest outlet in case the train was delayed too long and I needed to charge my battery and/or use the AC power, so I could keep working. For flights that might last 8 - 10 hours, having AC power on the plane is good, but carrying an extra long life battery or battery "slice" means that you can compute your entire flight - no sleep and no airline movies.

The next time you're in the market for a computer, have a look at how long the battery lasts. If you can borrow a friend's computer and see how long the battery life lasts in the real world (not in a vendor's lab) that's even better.Keep in mind that battery life is also quite affected by the power saving features embedded on the notebook, such as dimming the LCD when its running on battery power and more frequently shutting off the monitor when its not in use.

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On a regular basis, I come across computer users who have "self infected" their computers with viruses, malware (malicious computer programs), spy ware or some other bad computer program. Why "self infected?"

Well how did their computer become infected? A web advertisement popped up with the message Your computer is infected with a virus. To clean your computer click here. After the person clicked on the "warning," their computer becomes infected with a nasty program designed to (a) get them to pay for an anti-virus program that might not even work and/or (b) spy on their keystrokes or worse.

One reason why employers and their IT consultants consider locking down computers is to prevent lost productivity and data loss due to virus/malware/hacker attack. Employers want to give their employees the freedom to download the tools they believe will increase productivity and efficiency. However, there is always an underlying and legitimate fear that some employees will install a malicious program to infect and damage the company's computer network.

A hack attack I see on a regular basis are emails that purportedly come from a critical institution in every business professional's life. These emails have zip files attached to them and unsuspecting users open the attachments and get infected.

Data theft by employees should also be of concern to employers. network security software developer GFI conducted a survey in the U.K. to measure the awareness of businesses to internal data loss.The survey results found that, despite the higher rates of redundancies and staff dissatisfaction that has been proven to increase employee-led information theft, only 22% of respondents believe that of all the security threats, internal ones are of more cause for concern. Indeed, as many as 50% were ‘not that concerned’ about the threat of data theft by employees leaving the company.

When considering your company's security develop a holistic and all encompassing solution that can protect you from threats inside and outside of your business. Locking down your computers does not mean the complete loss of freedomg for your employees. What it does mean is that for the sake of the company, reasonable restrictions, with exceptions, need to be in place.

This content may have been developed with IBM funding. Regardless, this work represents the view of the author and does not necessarily represent the view of IBM. Although the content may utilize publicly available material from various sources, including IBM, it does not necessarily reflect the positions of such sources on the issues addressed in this content.

This content may have been developed with IBM funding. Regardless, this work represents the view of the author and does not necessarily represent the view of IBM. Although the content may utilize publicly available material from various sources, including IBM, it does not necessarily reflect the positions of such sources on the issues addressed in this content.

Since video production and hosting are easier to produce than ever, more of you are creating your own videos as marketing tools for clients.

Hosting on YouTube, Blip.tv or other video hosting sites makes video sharing easy. Video cameras that save videos to hard disks and easily transfer to computers make the entire video production easier than capturing a video from a tape-based disk to the computer.

Creating basic videos with no captions, backgrounds or other professional enhancements is not necessarily a "must", but if you want to be taken seriously by your customers (or prospects) it's important that your video looks as good as possible.

Your video does not have to be professionally produced, but in the same way that you would not create your own business cards from index cards, you should consider improving the overall quality of your videos. To take video editing to an entirely different level you might want to consider a video editing tool that lets you select a background, making your video look much better.

Video Presenter, for example comes with a "green screen" that you lets you customize the background you want for your video - very similar to your local weather forecaster. You can add whatever background you want.

At the much higher, and more complicated end, Adobe Premiere enables you to do a full range of professional video editing on your videos. The product is more expensive ($800) and complicated for the average computer user, but in the hands of someone who takes the time to learn it, it's one of the best video editing programs on the market.

I've been using The Flip video camera to create videos of technology executives smallbiztechnologyvideo.blip.tv. As you'll see on the videos, they are not fancy, no captions or nice backgrounds. I'll be using a professional video editor to improve the look of these videos.

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One of the slowest parts of doing business is the obligatory forms one must fill out once an agreement is reached. When entering into a contractual relationship, legal documents must be signed to consummate an agreement. However, often times it’s not just two signatures that are needed, but the signatures of several people at two or more companies. Chasing down busy executives can at best be difficult.

With electronic signatures, the work and hassle of signing documents is digital and holds up in court as being legally binding. Many of you might feel more comfortable seeing a hand written signature image on a document, however, electronic signatures, are safe and legal and should be considered for speed and efficiency in your business.

I just tested an electronic signature and document management service and it's simple, fast, efficient and feature rich. Here's how it works. I setup an account and in a few minutes I was presented with an online console - very well designed. Main options on the console include:

Sending a document to be signed

Creating a form and sending it to be signed

Approve a document that's already been sent for your signature

When sending a document to someone for signature, you can have the option to enable a digital signature or require the recipient to fax you a hand written signature. The entire process is handled by the digital signature service.

When the recipient receives your document for signature the process is easy for them. They receive an email from the service giving them a link to a secure web site. At the web site, the recipient can view the document and is then prompted to type in their name and initials. This is their digital signature. If they (or you) prefer a hand written signature the signer can print the document, sign it and fax to the digital signature service.

This service facilitates all parties signing the document (digitally or hand written), sends all parties a copy of all signed documents and manages all your electronically signed documents for you.Digital signatures are not only for contracts between companies but are also ideal for transactions between professionals or from businesses to individuals. Imagine the busy lawyer who needs to get approval on a variety of documents, from clients and others, in their course of business. Digital signatures enable a much faster approval process and easier management of what could mushroom into binders and binders of hand signed documents.

For virtual companies, with employees and management spread across the United States, or around the world, digital signatures can save a lot of time and save money in courier fees.Faxing hand signed signatures back and forth has worked for years, but to grow your business you need every bit of smart technology you can use to better serve your customers and move faster and more efficiently than your competition.

There are several companies you can turn to, to provide digital signature services. There is no software to download or install. The services work through your web browser.

A search on Google for “digital signatures” or “electronic signatures” will bring up a list of digital signature service providers. Knowing which company is good or reputable for your business is something you’ll have to judge as if you were choosing an email hosting company, purchasing insurance or looking for a company to host your web site.

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When employees leave your company, by being fired or otherwise, are they taking files (paper and digital) with them, that should not be taken?

In a study conducted by Symantec, they found that of the employees who take company data, 64% took old emails, while 62% took history and hard copy files with them. Of least interest were PDF files (9%), Access files (8%) and source code (3%). The survey also noted that most employees take hard copy data (that is, paper documents); the next most popular media are CD's and DVD's (53%) and small USB drivesw (42%). Over a third of the ex-employees who took files (38%) sent the data as e-mail attachments to their personal accounts.

What can you do? The report mentions the following options:

Ensure that policies and procedures clearly state former employees will no longer have access to sensitive and confidential information they used in their jobs. This includes information on laptops and other data bearing devices as well as paper documents. The policy should outline what information is considered sensitive and proprietary.

As part of the exit interview, the supervisor/business unit manager and/or someone from IT security should conduct a thorough review and audit the employee's paper and electronic documents. This includes checking electronic devices and paper documents.

Prior to the employee leaving, the company should monitor his/her access to the network or system to make sure sensitive and confidential information is not being downloaded or sent to the employee's personal email account.

Steps should be taken to ensure that the former employee is not able to access the company's network or system once the relationship has been terminated.

Extra precautions should be taken with former employees who have been asked to leave and/or are disgruntled. As the study reveals, emploees who have unfavorable views of the employer are far more likely to steal data.

I strongly recommend that you also work closely with your local computer consultant, who specializes in security, to look at your policies and systems to ensure you are doing everything you can to be as secure as possible.

One important reminder is to take the necessary steps in hiring employees that are honest and ethical. These upfront procedures will help protect your company on the back end.

Having clear policies in place and a "to do" list of tasks when employees leave are imperative measures to help keep your company's valuable data safe and secure.

Share your thoughts – add your comment to this posting. (You must be logged in to comment; to log in, click “log in” at the top of this page.)

This content may have been developed with IBM funding. Regardless, this work represents the view of the author and does not necessarily represent the view of IBM. Although the content may utilize publicly available material from various sources, including IBM, it does not necessarily reflect the positions of such sources on the issues addressed in this content.

Today, not having a mobile e-commerce capability is not going to hurt you. However, "tomorrow," as more consumers access web sites and utilize their phones as powerful tools, including for commerce, you will need to evaluate your audience and see if it's time to offer mobile payment solutions.

Evaluating your audience is very important. If only a small number of your customers or potential customers need or want mobile e-commerce options then it's probably not worth it for you. On the other hand, would sales increase if you had this type of option?

A mobile payment solution goes hand in hand with ensuring your web site, or at least key portions of it, are properly formatted for the small screens of cell phone web browsers.

Mobile payments are comprised of three aspects:

Visiting a web site and paying for services or products through a mobile browser

Paying for "on the spot" retail transactions (someone gives you a credit card)

Whether you enable your mobile users to purchase items on their cell phones from your web site or you equip your sales team to process transactions on their mobile devices - considering the feasibility of a mobile commerce strategy is important. Like any technology implementation be sure to test, refine and test again - before you fully implement and invest in an e-commerce strategy.

Share your thoughts – add your comment to this posting. (You must be logged in to comment; to log in, click “log in” at the top of this page.)

This content may have been developed with IBM funding. Regardless, this work represents the view of the author and does not necessarily represent the view of IBM. Although the content may utilize publicly available material from various sources, including IBM, it does not necessarily reflect the positions of such sources on the issues addressed in this content.